Anybody 3 - less-than-3 Arsenal

No team goes through a season without major injuries.  Big teams have depth.  So it's useless to speculate about our season with Holding and Bellerin healthy.  They aren't.  And the cast of supporting characters isn't good enough.  We've played some good football this season, and there's still a theoretical chance of silverware and an accompanying ticket to Champions' League, but the truth is we're not very good right now and look to be imploding.

Full confession: I got up early to watch this game, against my better judgment, and turned it off in disgust after the sending off of AMN.  We were already being outplayed with 11 and our loss was inevitable.  Every club in the league wants to play us now.  Europa League games have not been televised in the US this season (Bleacher Report sucks), so I may have watched (part of) my last Arsenal game for a long while.  It's a time saver, really. 

Notts County looks to be going out of league football.  Only an away win in their last game combined with a home loss by Macclesfield will save them.  DC United is doing just OK, in my estimation.  We went to Audi Field to see what may have been the most boring athletic contest ever played, so maybe that colors my view.  Juventus has won Serie A again, of course, but does not look ready to turn that corner.  It will be interesting to see Ramsey and Szczesny reunited.  All in all, not much to get excited about for me.  I'll post again if Arsenal manages to transform itself and win Europa League, but that seems very unlikely now.  No one reads this anyway.

Watford 0 - 1 Arsenal

I won't lie; I was very nervous about this game.  But thanks to Ben Foster, PEA, and a typically thuggish Troy Deeney, we got out of Vicarage Road with three points--barely.  I loved the Giroudesque goal Auba conjured up simply by hustling at top speed towards a keeper who tried to do too much.  And for me, there's no controversy at all about Deeney's whacking Torreira in the head with his forearm.  The TV commentators called the red "harsh" and seemed to think it mattered that Deeney's intentional clubbing of an opponent who'd already passed the ball was with his forearm and not his elbow, but that was only because the elbow hit Lucas's shoulder.  The intent was there, Torreira was knocked to the turf but did not make a meal of it, and the fat boy got exactly what he deserved.

I did not expect it to be goalless from there.  I was sure Watford would scrounge a goal and I figured we'd bag one or two more on the break.  But poor finishing from both sides, and uninspired play from Arsenal, made the game a real nail-biter.  Leno made some very good saves, and we got in some vital blocks, none more impressive than AMN's when Leno was rounded.  Foster did really well too on a couple of occasions.

My impression, before reading pundit ratings, was that this was not a good game for Ozil or Mikhi.  Monreal is showing his age (but I still love him).  Mavrapanos was not convincing.  Iwobi is still missing that final product, but looked lively and did his job.  Auba was dangerous all game.  Ramsey looked to be our best player and his being taken out was likely with Napoli in mind.  Kos is wonderful.  For once, I have no complaints about Mustafi.  Xhaka and Torreira were effective; Guendouzi when he came in, not so much.

They're all must-win from here on in.  Damn.  I hope we get some help against the other Champions' League chasers.


We went to a DC United game last week, a 0-0 snoozefest against Montreal that featured one shot on goal combined.  No Rooney, big problem.

Everton 1 - 0 Arsenal

What a depressing display.  Everton was better than us--Everton!  They should have had three goals.  We didn't show up.  Whatever's wrong needs to be fixed immediately.  I'm going to stop thinking about Arsenal for a while because it's just too annoying.